Harm avoidance

In psychology, harm avoidance (HA) is a personality trait characterized by excessive worrying; pessimism; shyness; and being fearful, doubtful, and easily fatigued. In MRI studies HA was correlated with reduced grey matter volume in the orbito-frontal, occipital and parietal regions.[1][2]

It has been suggested that HA is related to high serotonergic activity,[4] and much research has gone into investigating the link between HA and components of the serotonin system, e.g. genetic variation in 5-HTTLPR in the serotonin transporter gene.[5]

1.
Psychiatry
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Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various abnormalities related to mood, behaviour, cognition, initial psychiatric assessment of a person typically begins with a case history and mental status examination. Physical examinations and psychological tests may be conducted, on occasion, neuroimaging or other neurophysiological techniques are used. The fifth edition of the DSM was published in 2013, assertive community treatment, community reinforcement, and supported employment. Treatment may be delivered on an inpatient or outpatient basis, depending on the severity of functional impairment or on aspects of the disorder in question. The term psychiatry was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808, a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry is a psychiatrist. Psychiatry refers to a field of medicine focused specifically on the mind, aiming to study, prevent and it has been described as an intermediary between the world from a social context and the world from the perspective of those who are mentally ill. People who specialize in psychiatry often differ from most other health professionals. The discipline studies the operations of different organs and body systems as classified by the subjective experiences. Psychiatry treats mental disorders, which are divided into three very general categories, mental illnesses, severe learning disabilities, and personality disorders. While the focus of psychiatry has changed little over time, the diagnostic and treatment processes have evolved dramatically, since the late 20th century the field of psychiatry has continued to become more biological and less conceptually isolated from other medical fields. Psychiatrists can therefore counsel patients, prescribe medication, order laboratory tests, order neuroimaging, like other purveyors of professional ethics, the World Psychiatric Association issues an ethical code to govern the conduct of psychiatrists. The psychiatric code of ethics, first set forth through the Declaration of Hawaii in 1977, has expanded through a 1983 Vienna update and, in 1996. The code was revised during the organizations general assembblies in 1999,2002,2005. Discredited psychiatrists who operated outside the norms of medical ethics include Harry Bailey, Donald Ewen Cameron, Samuel A. Cartwright, Henry Cotton, Psychiatric illnesses can be conceptualised in a number of different ways. The biomedical approach examines signs and symptoms and compares them with diagnostic criteria, Mental illness can be assessed, conversely, through a narrative which tries to incorporate symptoms into a meaningful life history and to frame them as responses to external conditions. The notion of a model is often used to underline the multifactorial nature of clinical impairment. In this notion the word model is not used in a scientific way though

2.
Psychology
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Psychology is the science of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. It is a discipline and a social science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, Psychologists explore behavior and mental processes, including perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, and personality. This extends to interaction between people, such as relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind, Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. Psychology has been described as a hub science, with psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the sciences, natural sciences, medicine, humanities. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society, the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Many do scientific research on a range of topics related to mental processes and behavior. The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, the Latin word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century. In 1890, William James defined psychology as the science of mental life and this definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. Also since James defined it, the more strongly connotes techniques of scientific experimentation. Folk psychology refers to the understanding of people, as contrasted with that of psychology professionals. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle, addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes, in China, psychological understanding grew from the philosophical works of Laozi and Confucius, and later from the doctrines of Buddhism. This body of knowledge involves insights drawn from introspection and observation and it frames the universe as a division of, and interaction between, physical reality and mental reality, with an emphasis on purifying the mind in order to increase virtue and power. Chinese scholarship focused on the advanced in the Qing Dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi, Liu Zhi. Distinctions in types of awareness appear in the ancient thought of India, a central idea of the Upanishads is the distinction between a persons transient mundane self and their eternal unchanging soul. Divergent Hindu doctrines, and Buddhism, have challenged this hierarchy of selves, yoga is a range of techniques used in pursuit of this goal

3.
Personality trait
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In psychology, trait theory is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals, traits are in contrast to states which are more transitory dispositions. Gordon Allport was a pioneer in the study of traits. In his approach, cardinal traits are those that dominate and shape a persons behavior, their ruling passions/obsessions, such as a need for money, a wide variety of alternative theories and scales were later developed, including, Raymond Cattells 16PF Questionnaire J. P. Using factor analysis Hans Eysenck suggested that personality is reducible to three major traits, neuroticism, extraversion, and psychoticism, many psychologists currently believe that five factors are sufficient, neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Both the EPQ and Big Five approaches extensively use self-report questionnaires, the factors are intended to be orthogonal, though there are often small positive correlations between factors. The five factor model in particular has been criticized for losing the orthogonal structure between factors, Hans Eysenck has argued that fewer factors are superior to a larger number of partly related ones. Although these two approaches are comparable because of the use of analysis to construct hierarchical taxonomies, they differ in the organization. Whatever the causes, however, psychoticism marks the two apart, as the five factor model contains no such trait. Moreover, psychoticism, unlike any of the factors in either approach. Indeed, scores are high, thus skewing a normal distribution. However, when they are high, there is overlap with psychiatric conditions such as antisocial. Similarly, high scorers on neuroticism are more susceptible to sleep, Five factor approaches can also predict future mental disorders. There are two factors that both taxonomies clearly share, extraversion and neuroticism. Both approaches broadly accept that extraversion is associated with sociability and positive affect, whereas neuroticism is associated with emotional instability, many lower-order factors, or facets, are similar between the two taxonomies. For instance, both approaches contain factors for sociability/gregariousness, for activity levels, and for assertiveness within the higher order factor extraversion, first, the three-factor approach contains nine lower-order factors and the five-factor approach has six. Eysencks psychoticism factor incorporates some of the opposites of the lower order factors of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness

4.
Extraversion
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The trait of extraversion–introversion is a central dimension of human personality theories. The terms introversion and extraversion were popularized by Carl Jung, although both the understanding and psychological usage differ from his original intent. Extraversion tends to be manifested in outgoing, talkative, energetic behavior, whereas introversion is manifested in more reserved, virtually all comprehensive models of personality include these concepts in various forms. Extraversion and introversion are typically viewed as a single continuum, so, to be high in one necessitates being low in the other. Extraversion is the state of primarily obtaining gratification from outside oneself, Extraverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be enthusiastic, talkative, assertive, and gregarious. Extraverts are energized and thrive off being around other people and they take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. They also tend to work well in groups, an extraverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. They tend to be energized when around people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves. Introversion is the state of being interested in ones own mental self. Introverts are typically perceived as more reserved or reflective, some popular psychologists have characterized introverts as people whose energy tends to expand through reflection and dwindle during interaction. This is similar to Jungs view, although he focused on mental energy rather than physical energy, few modern conceptions make this distinction. Introverts often take pleasure in activities such as reading, writing, using computers. The archetypal artist, writer, sculptor, engineer, composer, an introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people, though they may enjoy interactions with close friends. Trust is usually an issue of significance, a virtue of utmost importance to introverts is choosing a worthy companion and they prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate, especially observed in developing children and adolescents. They are more analytical before speaking, mistaking introversion for shyness is a common error. Introverts prefer solitary to social activities, but do not necessarily fear social encounters like shy people do, yeats, Steven Spielberg and Larry Page. Ambiversion is falling more or less directly in the middle, an ambivert is moderately comfortable with groups and social interaction, but also relishes time alone, away from a crowd. Susan Cains 2012 book Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Cant Stop Talking reports that studies indicate 33–50% of the American population are introverts

5.
Big Five personality traits
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The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five factor model, is a model based on common language descriptors of personality. When factor analysis is applied to personality survey data, some used to describe aspects of personality are often applied to the same person. For example, someone described as conscientious is more likely to be described as always prepared than messy and this widely examined theory suggests five broad dimensions used by some psychologists to describe the human personality and psyche. The five factors have been defined as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, beneath each proposed global factor, a number of correlated and more specific primary factors are claimed. For example, extraversion is said to include such related qualities as gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity and that these factors can be found is consistent with the lexical hypothesis. Firstly that those personality characteristics that are most important in peoples lives will become a part of their language. Secondly that more important personality characteristics are likely to be encoded into language as a single word. Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has. It is also described as the extent to which a person is imaginative or independent, high openness can be perceived as unpredictability or lack of focus. Moreover, individuals with high openness are said to pursue self-actualization specifically by seeking out intense, euphoric experiences, such as skydiving, living abroad, gambling, et cetera. Conversely, those with low openness seek to gain fulfillment through perseverance, some disagreement remains about how to interpret and contextualize the openness factor. A tendency to be organized and dependable, show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, high conscientiousness is often perceived as stubbornness and obsession. Low conscientiousness is associated with flexibility and spontaneity, but can appear as sloppiness. Energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, high extraversion is often perceived as attention-seeking, and domineering. Low extraversion causes a reserved, reflective personality, which can be perceived as aloof or self-absorbed, a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. It is also a measure of ones trusting and helpful nature, high agreeableness is often seen as naive or submissive. Low agreeableness personalities are often competitive or challenging people, which can be seen as argumentative or untrustworthy, the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, and vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of stability and impulse control and is sometimes referred to by its low pole

6.
Serotonin
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Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Biochemically derived from tryptophan, serotonin is found in the gastrointestinal tract, blood platelets. It is popularly thought to be a contributor to feelings of well-being, approximately 90% of the human bodys total serotonin is located in the enterochromaffin cells in the GI tract, where it is used to regulate intestinal movements. The remainder is synthesized in serotonergic neurons of the CNS, where it has various functions and these include the regulation of mood, appetite, and sleep. Serotonin also has some functions, including memory and learning. Modulation of serotonin at synapses is thought to be an action of several classes of pharmacological antidepressants. Serotonin secreted from the cells eventually finds its way out of tissues into the blood. There, it is taken up by blood platelets, which store it. When the platelets bind to a clot, they release serotonin, Serotonin is also a growth factor for some types of cells, which may give it a role in wound healing. Serotonin is metabolized mainly to 5-HIAA, chiefly by the liver, metabolism involves first oxidation by monoamine oxidase to the corresponding aldehyde. This is followed by oxidation by aldehyde dehydrogenase to 5-HIAA, the acetic acid derivative. The latter is then excreted by the kidneys, in addition to animals, serotonin is found in fungi and plants. Serotonins presence in insect venoms and plant spines serves to cause pain, Serotonin is produced by pathogenic amoebae, and its effect on the gut causes diarrhea. Its widespread presence in many seeds and fruits may serve to stimulate the digestive tract into expelling the seeds, Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and is found in all bilateral animals, where it mediates gut movements and the animals perceptions of resource availability. In less complex animals, such as invertebrates, resources simply mean food availability. In more complex animals, such as arthropods and vertebrates, resources also can mean social dominance, in response to the perceived abundance or scarcity of resources, an animals growth, reproduction or mood may be elevated or lowered. This may somewhat depend on how much serotonin the organism has at its disposal, except for the 5-HT3 receptor, a ligand-gated ion channel, all other 5-HT receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors that activate an intracellular second messenger cascade. Serotonergic action is terminated primarily via uptake of 5-HT from the synapse and this is accomplished through the specific monoamine transporter for 5-HT, SERT, on the presynaptic neuron

7.
5-HTTLPR
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5-HTTLPR is a degenerate repeat polymorphic region in SLC6A4, the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter. Since the polymorphism was identified in the middle of the 1990s, it has extensively investigated. A2006 scientific article stated that over 300 behavioral, psychiatric, pharmacogenetic, while often discussed as an example of gene-environment interaction, this contention is contested. The polymorphism occurs in the region of the gene. Researchers commonly report it with two variations in humans, A short and a long, but it can be subdivided further, in connection with the region are two single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs25531 and rs25532. One study published in 2000 found 14 allelic variants in a group of around 200 Japanese, the difference between 16-A and 16-D is the rs25531 SNP. It is also the difference between 14-A and 14-D, some studies have found that long allele results in higher serotonin transporter mRNA transcription in human cell lines. Newer studies examining the effects of genotype may compare the LA/LA genotype against all other genotypes, the allele frequency of this polymorphism seems to vary considerably across populations, with a higher frequency of the long allele in Europe and lower frequency in Asia. Despite speculation to the contrary, the variation in the allele frequency is more likely due to neutral evolutionary processes than natural selection. In the 1990s it has been speculated that the polymorphism might be related to disorders. However, another large European study found no such link, a decade later two studies found that 5-HTT polymorphism influences depressive responses to life stress, an example of gene-environment interaction not considered in the previous studies. Two 2009 meta-analyses found no overall GxE effect, while a more recent meta-analysis and this suggests that authors may be data dredging for measures and analytic strategies which yield the results they want. With the results from one study the polymorphism was thought to be related to treatment response so that patients respond better to antidepressants. One study could find a treatment response effect for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to drug-resistant depression with long/long homozygotes benefitting more than short-allele carriers, the researchers found a similar effect for the Val66Met polymorphism in the BDNF gene. 5-HTTLPR may be related to personality traits, Two 2004 meta-analyses found 26 research studies investigating the polymorphism in relation to anxiety-related traits. Some other studies have, however, failed to find this association, nor with peer-rated neuroticism, a meta-analysis published in 2004 stated that the lack of replicability was largely due to small sample size and the use of different inventories. A similar conclusion was reached in an updated 2008 meta-analysis, however, based on over 4000 subjects, the largest study that used the NEO PI-R found no association between variants of the serotonin transporter gene and neuroticism, or its facets. This biased attention of positive emotional stimuli suggests they may tend to be more optimistic, other research indicates carriers of the short 5-HTTLPR allele have difficulty disengaging attention from emotional stimuli compared to long allele homozygotes

8.
Serotonin transporter
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The serotonin transporter also known as the sodium-dependent serotonin transporter and solute carrier family 6 member 4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC6A4 gene. SERT is a type of transporter protein that transports serotonin from the synaptic cleft to the presynaptic neuron. This transport of serotonin by the SERT protein terminates the action of serotonin and this protein is the target of many antidepressant medications of the SSRI and Tricyclic antidepressant classes. It is a member of the sodium, neurotransmitter symporter family, serotonin-Reuptake transporters are dependent on both the concentration of potassium ion in the cytoplasm and the concentrations of sodium and chloride ions in the extracellular fluid. In order to function properly the Serotonin Transporter requires the potential created by the sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase. Right after the release of the Serotonin in the cytoplasm a potassium ion binds to the transporter which is now able to back out returning to its active state. The serotonin transporter removes serotonin from the synaptic cleft back into the synaptic boutons, thus, it terminates the effects of serotonin and simultaneously enables its reuse by the presynaptic neuron. Neurons communicate by using chemical messengers like serotonin between cells, the transporter protein, by recycling serotonin, regulates its concentration in a gap, or synapse, and thus its effects on a receiving neuron’s receptors. The serotonin transporter is also present in platelets, there, serotonin functions as a vasoconstrictive substance and it also serves as a signalling molecule to induce platelet aggregation. SERT spans the plasma membrane 12 times and it belongs to NE, DA, SERT monoamine transporter family. Transporters are important sites for agents that treat psychiatric disorders, drugs that reduce the binding of serotonin to transporters are used to treat mental disorders. The SSRI Fluoxetine and the Tricyclic antidepressant Clomipramine are examples of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, however, studies on SERT showed that tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhbitors bind to the central binding site overlapping the substrate binding site. Isosteres 3-cis-indole 8a, Ki =220 pM The gene that encodes the serotonin transporter is called solute carrier family 6, in humans the gene is found on chromosome 17 on location 17q11. 1–q12. These phenotypic changes may, e. g. be increased anxiety, the short variation has 14 repeats of a sequence while the long variation has 16 repeats. The short variation leads to less transcription for SLC6A4, and it has found that it can partly account for anxiety-related personality traits. This polymorphism has been investigated in over 300 scientific studies. The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism may be subdivided further, One study published in 2000 found 14 allelic variants in a group of around 200 Japanese and Caucasian people. In addition to altering the expression of SERT protein and concentrations of serotonin in the brain

9.
PubMed Identifier
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PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval, from 1971 to 1997, MEDLINE online access to the MEDLARS Online computerized database primarily had been through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home-, the PubMed system was offered free to the public in June 1997, when MEDLINE searches via the Web were demonstrated, in a ceremony, by Vice President Al Gore. Information about the journals indexed in MEDLINE, and available through PubMed, is found in the NLM Catalog. As of 5 January 2017, PubMed has more than 26.8 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year 1865, and very selectively to 1809, about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the date,13.1 million of PubMeds records are listed with their abstracts. In 2016, NLM changed the system so that publishers will be able to directly correct typos. Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMeds search window, when a journal article is indexed, numerous article parameters are extracted and stored as structured information. Such parameters are, Article Type, Secondary identifiers, Language, publication type parameter enables many special features. As these clinical girish can generate small sets of robust studies with considerable precision, since July 2005, the MEDLINE article indexing process extracts important identifiers from the article abstract and puts those in a field called Secondary Identifier. The secondary identifier field is to store numbers to various databases of molecular sequence data, gene expression or chemical compounds. For clinical trials, PubMed extracts trial IDs for the two largest trial registries, ClinicalTrials. gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Register, a reference which is judged particularly relevant can be marked and related articles can be identified. If relevant, several studies can be selected and related articles to all of them can be generated using the Find related data option, the related articles are then listed in order of relatedness. To create these lists of related articles, PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation, as well as the MeSH headings assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. The related articles function has been judged to be so precise that some researchers suggest it can be used instead of a full search, a strong feature of PubMed is its ability to automatically link to MeSH terms and subheadings. Examples would be, bad breath links to halitosis, heart attack to myocardial infarction, where appropriate, these MeSH terms are automatically expanded, that is, include more specific terms. Terms like nursing are automatically linked to Nursing or Nursing and this important feature makes PubMed searches automatically more sensitive and avoids false-negative hits by compensating for the diversity of medical terminology. The My NCBI area can be accessed from any computer with web-access, an earlier version of My NCBI was called PubMed Cubby